A typical grinding wheel is disk-shaped and is centered on an axis about which it is rotated when in use. The wheel has a generally cylindrical outer surface centered on the axis, and a pair of faces lying in respective planes perpendicular to the axis. At least a ring of material along its outer edge is made of an abrasive material.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,062,097 describes such a wheel adapted for abrasive rings that are rotation symmetrical but not cylindrical, for instance frustoconical. Such surfaces are seen on crowned main bearings and pins of crankshafts. To conform the outer surface, that is the radially outwardly directed outer periphery, of the grinding wheel, this patent proposes forming the ring of grinding material along the outer rim so that it is not symmetrical to a plane bisecting the disk and perpendicular to the disk axis. The disk is made somewhat flexible inward of this outer ring so, when the disk is rotated at high speed, the asymmetrical weight of the outer ring bends it to one side or the other and orients its outer surface such that the ring of abrasive can grind the noncylindrical camshaft surface. Different rotation speeds produce different deformations and different angles.
Grinding at different speeds necessarily excludes the possibility of dressing the grinding wheel at the nominal grinding speed. In addition, the method requires that the spindle speeds be matched to the specific deformation so that these speeds are no longer available as parameters for other modes of process optimization.